September 30, 2010 - 6:54AM
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Pickets clashed with police, airlines cancelled flights and commuters battled transport chaos on Wednesday as Spanish unions staged a general strike against tough labour reforms and spending cuts.Tens of thousands also took to the streets in major cities in evening protests over the government measures, aimed at slashing unemployment which has soared to more than 20 per cent and reviving the battered economy.
"This clamour, this expression of democracy, of freedom... cannot pass unnoticed by the government, which must react," the head of the CCOO union, Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, said at the march in the capital.
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But the government downplayed the impact of the stoppage.
"The strike has had an uneven following and a limited effect," Labour Minister Celestino Corbacho told a news conference.
The government has vowed there will be no reversal of the labour reforms, which make it easier to hire and fire workers and which received final approval from parliament on September 9.
Unions are also fighting steep spending cuts, including an average state employee salary reduction of five per cent, and plans to gradually raise the retirement age to 67 from 65.
Around 20 people were injured in scuffles involving pickets and police outside factories around the country, and more than 60 people were arrested, Spanish media said.
Three police officers were hurt in confrontations with pickets outside a factory of the European aerospace group EADS in the Madrid suburb of Getafe, the government said.
In Madrid, frustrated commuters walked to and from work or waited at bus stops or at metro stations, rubbish was left uncollected and thousands of union leaflets urging workers to stay at home littered the streets.
Newspaper kiosks were devoid of papers as the main dailies went on strike on Tuesday, a day early.
In Barcelona, Spain's second largest city, the city's taxi drivers' union said that 90 per cent of its members observed the stoppage, but reported some clashes between pickets and non-striking drivers at the airport.
Unions hailed the strike as a success.
"I think that there will be few people who doubt the reach of the strike," Toxo told a news conference.
"People managed to overcome the fear of the pickets and any disproportionate action by the police in some places."
One demonstrator in Madrid, Beatriz, 36, said the government "must take notice of the response of the citizens over this legislation that curbs the rights that we have fought for and have had for many years."
The General Union of Workers (UGT) had earlier said more than 70 per cent of workers observed the stoppage.
The government did not give an overall participation figure.
But Corbacho said that among government departments, 7.5 per cent of workers stay home, in public companies it 23.8 per cent and 21 per cent in the transport sector.
But he said participation was "very variable" with almost 100 per cent observing the strike in the car making sector and just 3.0 per cent in hotel and catering.
The unions struck a deal last week with the government to ensure minimum services for the day. It provided for a minimum of 20-40 per cent of international flights and 10 per cent within the Spanish peninsula.
It allowed 20 per cent of high speed trains and 25 per cent of district trains. But no regional or long-distance trains were guaranteed.
Corbacho said minimum services were operating at 98 per cent."
Spain slumped into recession in late 2008 as the global meltdown accelerated the collapse of its once-booming property sector. It only emerged in the first quarter of this year with tepid growth of 0.1 per cent.
AFP (smh.com.au)
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